US Democratic presidential contender Julian Castro said that he would end his presidential bid unless his campaign raises 800,000 US dollars in the next 10 days. “If my campaign can’t raise $800,000 by October 31st, my campaign will be silenced for good,” Castro said in a tweet on Monday . “Help us keep up the fight.”

Recent Federal Election Commission filings revealed that Castro had raised over just 3.4 million dollars during the third fundraising quarter, and only has a little over 600,000 dollars in the bank.

The former housing secretary of the Obama administration and ex-San Antonio mayor has struggled with raising money. Castro, 45, launched his presidential campaign early this year. He’s the only Latino in the crowded Democratic field.

Castro is not the first Democrat in this election cycle to have been obliged to drop out of the race due to certain fundraising threshold.

Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey told supporters in September that he needed to raise 1.7 million dollars over a span of 10 days to stay in the race. Booker’s campaign surpassed its goal, raising more than 2.1 million dollars in that stretch and boosting his third-quarter fundraising total to more than 6 million dollars.

According to a SurveyUSA poll released on Monday, Castro only has the support of 1 per cent of likely Democratic primary voters nationwide. (UNI)